The 1970s-era personal rapid transit method was a federally-funded program meant to be a model for other cities Nestled in the green foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia is a college town, Morgantown, pop. 31,000, that is home to what was once hailed as the future of public transportation in the United States.
The system would not look out of place in a sketch from the Jetsons or the desk of Buckminster Fuller: driverless podcars that glide mindlessly across an elevated guideway running between five stations through the town. This is the PRT, short for personal rapid transit, a federally funded project that was once believed to be the answer for traffic clogged towns and cities around the country.
Built in the early 1970s, Morgantown?s PRT is the product of an uniquely American pursuit: space-age technology employed in the service of speed and personalization. With a capacity designed for about 20 people, the podcars are fraction of the size of a regular subway car and travel up to 30 miles per hour. And unlike subway or bus rides that stop along every stop of its route, the PRT?s destination is determined by the press of a button in the station, meaning it doesn?t make any superfluous stops for its riders. The 70 or so podcars ferry more than than 15,000 students and workers around the small city, which is home to West Virginia University and its sprawling, hilly campus, every day.
But much of the PRT?s future as a transportation m...